Wedding thankyou gifts

As my blog partner now busy everyday wedding shopping (for her sis!) I thought this blog is helpful...

To be honest, I hate going to weddings of people I dont know cos all you do is sit there and eat and stuff yourself with disgusting chinese "wedding" food! I just think its so pointless... so in my opinion, even tho you are inviting ppl u dont know, it is always nice to keep those "unknown" entertained so that they wont go home and blab on how damn boring and what a waste of time the wedding is for us. The 3 musts to keep "unknown family guests" happy is:
1) Good videos to show in between the banquet
2) Good and must be funny speeches, speeches should be about the groom and bride and the speech is best when its about their personalities and memorable + easy to understand recap of incidents and not of past stupid behaviours or incidents which no one understands except a certain group of people.
3) Table gifts that can be taken home and USED. I know that since its your wedding gift and you would love to put your name on the gift so that everyone remembers the "memorable day". From my experience, any gift with a name on it usually ends up in the bin (if that happens, why bother?)! Picture frames, phone straps etc usually never fails, CHocolate which tastes good are a good idea but ones that doesnt taste good, then dont bother wasting the money.

I have been to many many man weddings these 2 years, so many that I cant even recall some of them and mostly to people which I hardly know. The rule of thumb to newly weds who want a really special wedding that everyone remembers is that just to keep all speeches and videos simple, easy to understand and funny at the same time, the more you do, the more no one understands and hence bore them outta their minds!

Hope this is useful D.

Just got some pics to show you my favourite wedding gifts which I have kept!

Ko.

hamburgers that is not from maccas

Haevnt bloggged for so long that I almost forgotten the password of the login haha... thanks to kay for reminding us that our blog is nearly dead .. i decided i should save it and relive its glory!

why maccas so successful?
During school days, everyone of us has done the activity called "brainstorm", when I give the word "hamburgers" to you, what is the first thing that comes into your mind? McDonalds!! (whether you like maccas or not, it just comes to your mind) For me actually it will be Triple O's

everytime i go to Pacific Place, I will definatley go there for dinner and usually I will order the mushroom burger with extra cheese. The mushrooms,the beef patty and the cheese is really juicy! On top of that, the beef actually smells and tastes like real beef!

The other must order would be their milk shakes (more like thick shakes), it feels like drinking icecream!

Tips:
Dont order the fries because its not nice, another reason is because a normal female wont be able to finsih a burger and milkshake! Best to Go with a friend, order 2 singular burgers and 1 milkshake to share! If not, you will be wasting half of the food! The price aint cheap as well so dont over order.

Ko.

happy hens

the most delicious eggy dessert....creme caramel from france
1 pound at borough market in london.
how cute is the tub it comes in?
france have happy hens, hence they laid happy eggs, hence yummy creme caramel!

D.

and wait! there's more foie!

our 2nd meal at les deux magots
salad with smoked duck and foie gras!
i know for a fact that my liver has became a liver of an overstuffed goose.

is that humanly possible?

D.

more more more foie gras

this is my first lunch in paris.
most memorable, simple and delicious lunch

lentils with 2 giant sticks of foie gras....hmmm....
12.95 euros

les deux magots on blv st germain
good cafe creme, too!

D.

more fauchon

this has got to be the poshiest sandwich I ever had in my life, drum roll please....
baguette filled with foie gras (goose pate, the real stuff not the fake stuff thats mixed with chicken livers), champagne jelly, walnut and rocket...heavenly!

13 euros, merci!

perfect (posh) brekkie

so I read somewhere (in a magazine) that a carbs + protein loaded breakfast is very good for you, it helps concentration and increase productivity at work.
so i reckon some fluffy pastry and eggy madelienes will do no harm!

yum!
hazelnut croissant
very eggy and delicious truffle madeliene(with a dollop of creme friache inside)
lemon madeliene

at fauchon in paris (place de madeliene)

ps and you would think the coffee there is good, NOT!
came out of a machine, they didnt even froth the milk! for 4 euros a pop, it's so not worth it!

D.

kate moss for topshop

I am finally blogging, I have so much back blogging to do, but this is all the stuff from sydney! and i already left sydney for a month (!).. so guess those materials is not good for blogging anymore, it's too old! so I present to you, something current...my trip so far...

I took this at the selfridges in london, cos I cannot be bothered to go to topshop on oxford street! it's crowded,overpriced and overrated.

anyways, since i had some time to kill this arvo, i went into selfridges to try on this kate moss for topshop cape, it's quite dramatic, quite fine for london's winter. but maybe not so in hk! or sydney!

I think there are a few cape inspired coats in zara, but has anyone seen something like this one, with no sleeve, but not as warm and dramatic?

D.

New member in my room

Girls and shopping! you can never think of what a girl ends up buying during aimless shopping tours. Friend (Nat) and I walked past this street stall showing vase with a plant and around the plant is decorated by different colour beads sized of glass marbles. Out of curiosity Nat touched it and went "OH !!! its slitery slimy!!" In this situation obviously the owner would use all his sales skills to tell us what they are and why they are like that and how miraculous they are to persuade us to buy it!

As a normal human female, of course we bought it but its really cheap. For HKD25, you get a pack of beads (looks like a pack of seeds), 2 bean shaped seeds and a welcome phone strap gift. All you need to do is pour all those beads in a vase and fill up the vase with water, the next day the little seed-like beads will become the size of a marble. Its the same idea with sago.

Supposedly the plant should grow in a week and the beads are the plant's source of water, we do not need to water the plant at all for 3 mths until the beads shrink. When it shrinks, we fill it up with water for it to grwo big again... this should go on for 2 years. This new life has become a very important person of my room because everyday i am waiting and waiting for it to grow. So far the seed has blown up but no plant yet! will update later of the progress...

Ko.

Chinese cuisine

To all Westerners, Chinese cuisine consists of food like spring rolls, mongolian beef, san choy bao, sweet and sour pork, stir fried noodles and fried rice. For us Chinese locals, internal organs are a major part of our meal.. for me anyway...

The chinese are known for being hardworking and because most of our parents or above generations are raised poorly therefore they have learnt not to waste any food and eat whatever they have. Picky with food was not an option for them. Having internal organs was considered lucky, they are lucky not being starved to death. My dad said when he was young, he only had soya sauce with rice each day...

For people who love internal organs would love livers, duck liver sausage is recommended. How to detect if a duck liver is nice or not? Its if it is crispy outside and juicy inside, not to moist and not to hard should be the best. Most importantly, there should be a strong taste of duck liver and a rose wine kinda taste! Trust me, there arent many places that can do nice duck liver sausages!

I recommend 2 places:
1) Yung Kee - central famous for their bbq goose, their duck liver sausages is a must try too!
2) "Snack king 2" (direct translation) - in causeway bay famous for eating snake soups and duck liver sausages. My friend Nat and I went there the other day, its her first visit. We ordered the snake soup set including 1 bowl of rice with sausages and another extra bowl of rice with bbq pork and duck liver sausages. Her mind was thinking, how can we eat such a big bowl of rice with only sausages? we ended finishing everything! thats how much girls eat nowadays

This is another long blog... somehow i can never shorten them! please dont get bored!

Ko.

i am still alive

hey y'all
I am fiercely typing this in the hamburg airport so this will be short and sweet.
i know i havent been posting and ko has been so good!
i promise i will have lots for u, just havent found the time or proper internet to do it!
cant wait to blog again!
D.x

winter musts

Winter in Hong Kong suddenly made a 180 degree change, last week anything more than a light jacket was too hot and today scarves, big jackets, boots are out! This week my mind has been all around what should I wear this winter????

Apart from this problem, the sudden dry weather has cracked my lips opened! I have been using this water sleeping pack from Laneige... its a mask put overnight! Very absorbing and its not oily at all... best of all is the quantity in the jar is very generous, not like brands where the jar seems huge but u realise theres an inner layer which is not even half of what it seems on the outside. Laneige actually fills up the whole jar!!

I dont really like to recommend facial products cos its really personal and i dont wanna ruin peoples skin! But i would really like to give a pat of the back to Laneige for offering such a generous amount inside the bottles and their price is not expensive at all! Makes our life a lot easier!

Ko.

Brow talk

Plucking brows has alwasy been this grey beauty problem which you will never want to spend money on.... to most people, what can a shaped brow will do anyway? Miraculously it does make a difference (clarification: this difference might not be obvious to boys...)! I never use to go pluck my brows but my sis intro this really dumpster looking place to do my brows for HKD50 (now 60 i think), the beautician is a 50 yr old lady who sits in a shop selling dust covered make up. Scary as it sounds, on peak hours, a queue of 20 ppl can be seen lining up to get brows fixed!! (NO exaggeration!) They dont really pluck ur brows out, but they fix your shape and all you need to do is pluck roots out as it grows and the brow shape should last around 3-4 weeks. No more unbalance brows and most importantly no more plucking too much on one side and making one brown seem to be shorter or twitched!

Warning for hygiene freaks: they use this sponge to wipe your brows first, when they finsiehd they use the same sponge to wipe off those bits thats fallen on ur face or nose.. that sponge is used by the whole world so it includes other ppl's make up as well.... sounds bad but it doesnt really affect me tho...

Another common brow problem is the tweezers we use at home... cheap tweezers can never take out the roots, and when pulling from the wrong part, it snaps the hair and leaving unpluckible roots and this really gets on my nerves. So after trying my frd's orignal tweezerman, I realise the importance of buying good tweezers cos you can actually pluck out roots, those roots that is just a black dot?? But I almost fainted when she told me the price! Laura Mercier has a tweezer made by Tweezerman which retails a lot cheaper and works as fine...


Address of brow place: Causeway Bay Apple centre, therse only 1 dumpster looking cosmetics shop with full of mid aged women

Ko.

cafe deco

again disappeared for a while... just didnt have much inspiration! i always want to talk about things which i feel is special and which i wanna recommend! or else it will be too fake! its just not me!

oh anyway, as my frds all know i always complain about my bf being boring and never give me any surprises and as usual for any special events and dates of ours... he just PRETENDS to try hard and think of a place and it always ends up to be cafe deco at the peak! for all those who are thinking we are going there for the view or watever... trust me we just go there for the food, im a huge fan of cafe deco on the peak!

their menu consists of many cuisines and so far the stuff i tried is good! the must try for foie gras fans is their foie gras handroll.. this was recommended by my frd and ever since i have been ordering that! prices are very reasonable considering its the peak! its around 250hkd pp.. seriously thats pretty good for a tourist restaurant... in syd .. who would be able to walk out of a syd tower restaurant paying that price?? NO WAY!

the reason why i cant stop talking about this place is that i really appreciate how that their main customers are tourists which means ppl will go to them no matter what but they still dont slack off with the quality of their food... thats also the reason why i love hong kong... good food anywhere anytime!

Ko.

VOGUE 93'

the reason why you should NOT throw your clothes out cos you never know what you can do with it 15 years later. Look how stunning that outfit looks!

Ko.

another jap treasure

list of things which i love from the japs:
- fruits
- food
- junk food
- clothes
- cartoon characters
- gadgets - cameras etc
- music
- culture
- the list can go on till forever!

that just have shown im those die hard jap fans! i have my back up for this ... i havent been working long but i have to say i have met quite a lot of people already from all over the world... so far all my jap clients will come with a gift when they meet us and mind you, we are only their supplier. Their huge sense in manners earns my respect for them!

I found this place which does quality teppenyaki, not those circus acts where chefs throw eggs at your bowl, or juggling pepper and salt mill up and down just to sprinkle some on the meat and last but not least writing thank you with the salt sprinkler... this place is just full on quality ingredients, skillful knife/cutting techniques and right mixing of sauces.

Pricing wise I think its quite acceptable 350 pp for a set meal with prawns as big as your arms (ok i exaggerated a bit there!) scallops and quality beef (but for other things they can be super pricey). A really cute thing they do is they put a piece of toasted bread under the meat and veges to soak up the oil! But the toast was too hard to resist so I ate it before it could soak up anything! I suggest to everything to ask the chef to make an extra toast to eat, trust me its really good!

Sorry for the bad pics, I only had phone cam with me and this was not my phone either so it look like 2 months before I could actually do this blog (wuge: yes im talking to you...thanks for the QUICK sending of pics!)

http://www.hanasakazuki.com/ - for details

Ko.

claudes

Please tell me this is the most perfect souffle you have ever seen!
It is so delicious, too. we were seated upstairs on the night, there's a small pastry kitchen right next to our dining room, and as it gets towards the end of the night, the head chef chui lee luk was busy whisking away egg white with a whisk and copper bowl! I admire her, not only she is a female chef but also she owns her restaurant and relentlessly make souffles for us lucky souls! we had a bitter orange souffle this time, it has a contreau cream on the side, it's so yummy. But my favourite was a hazelnut souffle with almond praline and cream I had in the last two visits, oh it's like I've died and gone to heaven!

Claudes deliver time and time again, I love this restaurant, it's my favourite out of all the 3 hatted restaurants. This place's got soul, it's not flashy, it's elegant. food is so well done, service is attentive, the restaurant is small and intimate, best of all they encourage you to BYO and corkage is only $15.

I am sure i will be be back! (when I come back to sydney!)

D.

how to dress like ther perfect couple by ashton kutcher

I heard a while ago Ashton Kutcher is writing for bazaar and I am thinking, what an odd pairing. But trust me, I came across this article he wrote in US bazaar, it was so cute and funny. and he let us in on a mystery abt men and fashion, enjoy!

It was another hot, humid iowa summer afternoon. My eight year old fingers managed to fasten a bottle rocket to the back of my GI Joe, using only scotch tape, while I watched ny sister, Tashua, dress up her Barbie doll for some fancy party that I hadn’t been invited to. I had a brief visual showdown with her nude, slightly arrogant Ken doll, who was a few plastic tidbits short of being a man. (his lack of man parts seemed only fair, given I had been solely disappointed weeks before to find that Barbie herself lacked the answers I’d been looking for.) The GI Jow launch was a rousing success and Ken shuddered in fear, knowing he was next. I went in for the swipe. But Ken was snatched up just in time by my sister, who was a little bit bigger, faster and bitchier than I was.
“you cant blow up Ken,” she said. “he’s coming to the party”.
“ But how’s he gonna go to the party naked?” I asked.
Little did I know that I was about to receive a sage piece of fashion advice from my greatest adversary. “barbie gets dressed first, then the shoes , then Ken then the bag,” she said with a smirk. “ and if you blow up Ken, I’ll kick u in the nuts.” Enough said. Ken lived.

I believe there’s wisdom with which women enter this world that men will never understand. Its like how a woman can cry for no reason, then an hour later still be crying. But now it’s her man’s fault, because he didn’t console her while she was crying for no reason. While this remains a mystery, in the summer of 1986, thanks to Barbie’s party preparation. I was let in on one of the greatest female fashion secrets of the modern era. I realized that when it comes to getting dressed, men are a little bit more important than handbags but less important than shoes. At any rate, we are merely accessories.

In a day and age when most American men would rather be blowing something up than getting spiffed up for some social occasion, I imagine getting your significant other to wear even a suit can seem like a Sisyphean task, let alone matching said suit to your outfit so you actually look like a couple. Here a few insights that might make this feasible.

If you got dressed up and asked your guy how you looked, how would you feel if he replied, “ You look tough”? Likewise, guys don’t like to be told they look nice, pretty, or cute or they clean up well. We want to feel dirty, rugged and most important that you feel safe when you are in our company. So when your guy finally tries something that you like, tell him that he looks like James Bond or Tony Montana. Feel free to be even more vague than that: “wow that suit makes you look like that hot football player!” Or just ask him if he feel like he can still throw a punch in the outfit, just in case he needs to protect you. Trust me, say sany of this and tou wont be able to get him to take the damn suit off. Before you know it, he’ll be wearing an Armani tux to league night at the bowling alley.

You never want people to notice your accessories. When you walk into a room, heads should turn. The desired effect is for everyone to say or think that you look beautiful. If people comment on your shoes or bag, they’re not appreciating the entire essence that is you. If you go to a museum and see a statue on a podium, you don’t want people to say, “wow, what a stunning podium. Where can I get one of those?” Your entire ensemble should be so captivating, so cohesive, that one particular thing cant be singled out. It supports you,; you don’t support it. In this same way, your man should not upstage you. He is here to highlight you.

Men’s clothes, for the most part, are simple but looking like stylish couple is in the details. When you go shopping for Lanvin flats to match your Marc Jacobs dress perfectly, swing by the men’s store and pick him up a shirt tie, vest or sweater that works with your palette. Because if there’s one things that men hate more than getting dressed, it’s going shopping. This may also helps us forget how much money you managed to spend due to that “incredible sale!” that oddly never seems to end. But make sure that look isn’t too matchy matchy; you don’t want to seem like you planned it all out. Youe best bet is to match the man gear to that great new Balenciaga bag that you’re planning to carry. If your bag works with your outfit, so will he. Always make sure that your jewelry is in sync that he is not more or less dressed up than you are.

A word of warning, however: Don’t tell him that you’re doing any of this. Just tell him he looks like he can kick Ken’s ass.

by ashton kucther, from US bazaar September 2007

Fruits

Japs somwhow have the brains to do spectacular things thus making them a market leader in many things. When it comes to fruits and food, they are also the best! (but the price of their stuff is scarrrry)

After dinner, a common dessert will be fruits, my first question is ... "is it jap fruits?" if yes i will jump up and grab for them! my favourites are:

1) Grapes - big and juicy! has a tiny bit of an alcohol taste inside! open a hole on the top and you can suck out the whole juicy grape and spit out the skin!

2) pink peaches - i call this "the explosion peach", when you get a good pick, you take a bite, and the feeling will be of a peach has been exploded with juice in your mouth, water will start running from the sides of the mouth cos there is just too much juice! Best to put in the fridge so when eating it, its like drinking ice cold peach juice...

3) Strawberries - every single strawberry is in the perfect shape and is super sweet. Just like strawberries seen on drawings... its that perfect!

All Jap fruits seems to be always very juicy, I wonder why?? I really admire the japs by how their country is so united together and protective of their own products. All their best products is only served to their own country, try going to Japan and try the chips, they are usually so much better.

Will do another blog later on fruits from other countries which are as exciting as the japs! stay tuned...

Ko.

good lips to ... kiss!

hey im still alive !! for all my blog readers... just have been laying low to avoid any unnecessary expenses

several months ago, i wrote a list of possible blog entries i can possibly write about for the future and in the list i found "carmex" ... good idea!

"carmex" - my favourite lip balm which has been in my bag all the time!
as everyone knows i have a really bad habit of always picking the peeled skin off my lip and its always chapped so i have been trying many lip balms which can heal these chapped lips as quick as it can possibly do... so far after testing many brands, carmex has been my personal pick! before it arrived in hongkie land, i had to get my bro's gf or whoever to bring me some from syd! now i would like to announce carmex is now available in watsons stores !! yayyyy!!!

i will try to write another blog reallly soon!

ko.

melbourne bumper special - food 02

kokoblack - royal arcade bourke street

this is my favourite chocolate palace in melbourne.
it's like a boutique kinda chocolate shop, I grew so sick of max brenner in sydney, it's used to be good!

kokoblack made the best ruffles, because it is made fresh, I am a purist and only like the classic belgium, see it says on the box you must consume withing 7 days, hence I have none left and therefore no image of it here, hehe.

I remember 3 years ago I went to melbourne and it was the day before new year and i was about to leave melbourne to go back to sydney, so I loaded the rental car with kokoblack truffles, thinking that I will enjoy this while i watch the fireworks. so back in sydney, just half an hour to midnight, i opened the the box with excitement but all i saw was molten chocolate!

what was I thinking? like chocolate will not melt in 36 degrees heat inside the boot. so you see how much i cherish each and every piece of truffle this time around!

kokoblack in royal arcade has a cafe upstairs, their ice choc is to die for, it's not sickeningly rich, i think it's cos they made it with proper dark choc. it has one scoop of vanilla and choc ice cream in it....hmmmm...

heard they are planning to open one in canberra and possibly one in sydney!
D.

melbourne bumper special - arts

looks like sulley is gonna gimme a good old slap!

I went to the pixar exhibition at ACMI at federation sqaure in melbourne.
luxo (the desk lamp) is there! he even brought his little ball that he is going to crush!

the exhibition was amazing! they showed a lot of behind the scenes stuff. Apparently it takes pixar 4 years to do one animation. they also showed all the short films that you see in the beginning of every animation. Apparently you can buy them all on itunes!

I urge everyone to go and watch ratatouille, it's nothing like cars! the story is very good but children might find it a bit long and might not get the jokes.

D.

melbourne bumper special - food

rockpool bar and grill at crown casino

I didnt have super high expectations of the place but man was I blown away!
by far the best steak I ever had! the menu was so extensive, it covers fish, lobsters, pasta, salads, soups.....but I stick to my guns and since they have a meat hanging/drying fridge, baturally I went straight for the steak!

the one that's sliced is the wagyu I had, aged for 49 days. the marbling is perfection!
and it's only like 200 g so you dun feel like it's too rich.

something abt the wood they use for the grill, it's a got a sweet and smoky flavour.
the sides are very very good, too. we had a potato and cabbage gratin, it's a must!
it's thin layers of potatoes and cabbage baked with cheese on top, cheesy and sweet at the same time. even an very ordinary sounding boiled veg with lemon and olive oil was fantastic. and if u ever go to any rockpool establishment, u must have their salads, it's the most well dressed salad in sydney!

to finish we had a passionfruit pavlova (I hate passionfruit, but i love this dessert) and a blood orange sandwich. we had a long black with it and it was soooooo delicious!

service was perfect, wine list was perfect, food was perfect, interior was perfect (they have really comfy club chairs) I cannot ask for more!

D.

Bouillabaisse

whipped this fish soup up the other day, I used to do it with a donna hay recipe, but I think this is the best tasting one I have made when I didnt follow the recipe! yummy....it's not too fatty and full of goodness of seafood!

1. browned leeks, garlic and fennel in a pot2. add prawn heads, until it's changed colour, add salt n pepper to taste

3. add fish stock, saffron, can of tomatoes bring to the boil.

4. add pieces of fish, prawns, whatever seafood you can get

5. serve with parsley or chives

traditionally bouillabaise is served with toast and aioli (like a garlicky mayo)

but when u are cooking for one, who'd bother? you should be lucky you find rice from last night in the fridge!

D.

lovely jubbly

I want to post a shoutout to all my lovely friends here, thanks so much for my lovely birthday presies!

I will keep them forever and who knows, if i have a daughter I can always past on the little black dress to them! (trust me, I wanna be a cool mom, I will try and keep everything that's cool and that might come back in fashion for her)

and this fluffy print from the lovely kay! this is definitely an heirloom item!

I am so looking forward to hanging this in my new room in hk!

kay went into so much trouble getting the print, pls note the stamp on the envelope, it was posted on 3 aug! so thoughtful!

it is signed and numbered by the fluffy illustrator, simone lia. she was so nice to have drawn fluffy on the postage envelope and she even wrote kay a little note, too sweet!

as you can see the excessive use of exclamation point here, I cannot contain my excitement.

thanks again everyone!
d.xoxo